Running to the last light' A dying light fanfiction
by MisterDarkness
Summary: The next olympic games where going to be held in the city of Harran. But before that could happen, a massive outbreak of a zombie virus turns almost every resident into mindless beasts. During the initial chaos of the outbreak, an important document is lost. Former usmc Kyle Crane is sent into the city to retrieve the document, that could be the key to the outbreak.
1. Prologue

Running to the last light

'Last mission briefing before dropping' The GRE woman's voice said.

I checked my parachute for the last time, and I began to stare at the plane's cargo door.

'You mission is to locate Kadir Suleiman, in the chaos of the outbreak, he stole a verry sensitive document, that contains information capable of threatening the excistence of humanity itself' The woman said.

'The radio that you already have is the only one that can break through the city wide jamming' The woman said.

'Twenty seconds till we reach the droppoint' The pilot said.

I stood up, and I started to run in place in anticipation of the cargo door opening.

'Ten seconds tilll we reach the droppoint' The pilot said.

'Crane, if you fail your mission, thousands will die, remember that'

'I'll do all I can' I said.

'We believe that our hope in you is not futile' The GRE woman said.

'Droppoint reached in five, four, three, two'The pilot slowly counted.

I stroked my ten days old beard and kracked my knuckels.

'ONE! GO!' The cargo door opened, and I was almost blasted from my feet by the strong wind.

I ran towards the edge of the plane, and i jumped.

The strong winds caused me to spin a couple of times, but I managed to regain control after a couple of seconds.

Beneath me, I could see the city of Harran appearing beneath me.

I activated my parachute, the parachute activated without problems, and I began to slowly twirl down.

The city began to open up under me, and I could slowly start to see buildings seperate from each other.

To my left I could see Harrans stadion, and to my right the large skyscrapers used to house thousands of Harran's residents.

My descent accelerated and I looked for a good landing spot.

The wind forced me towards the houses just by the large skyscrapers.

I managed to steer my parachute at a large suncreen in front of the houses, and I prepared for landing.

Despite this not being my first time landing with a parachute, it was far from my first, this was always the risky part.

'Speed never killed someone, suddenly stopping has' I said to myself and smirked.

Just before I landed I rolled, reducing the impact of the fall.

The force of my fall was still to much for the sunscreen, and I ripped straight through it, and I tumbled to the ground.

Hastedly I tried to remove my parachute from my suit.

Just as I was about to remove the parachute from my head, I could hear people approaching.

'I told you it wasn't a normal dropping!' One of them said.

'Break his legs and arms, then take him to Rais' Another one said.

In one move, I removed the parachute from my face, pulled the gun from it's holster, and aimed it at the first of them I saw.

'Back of scum!' I said loudly.

They began to circle me.

'Don't shoot, sounds draws them' the largest of them said, while he dragged a large fire axe.

'Don't make me shoot you' I said, now aiming at the tall one.

'If you shoot, you're dead' The tall one said.

Out of nowhere, one of them struck me from behind, and in one instand they where all atop of me.

They started to kick and hit me with their fists and feet, I just managed to roll to my side, freeing my pistol arm.

In the struggle I felt flesh that wasn't my own, and I fired the gun.

I heard it cutting through flesh, and second later the screaming.

The two other guys jumped away from me and started to run.

'Leave him! He's not worth it!' The large one screamed.

I struggled to my feet, and looked to my right.

I saw that I hit the man in the shoulder, blood was gushing out of his arm, and he was screaming in pain.

It didn't took me long to realise that he know brought me in danger.

His screaming would certainly draw in infected, if the shot earlier didn't draw them to me.

I quickly snapped the guys neck, but it was too late.

In the left corner of my eye, I could see one zombie running towards me, his hands stretched in front of his torso, and a strange growling noice came from his mouth.

I wanted to back off and run away, but it was to late.

I chrashed with the zombie, and fell down.

'No no no no!' I screamed as I tried to kick it off.

But the zombie was faster.

I almost felt like time was slowing down.

Despite my years of training in the army, this was completely new, and the zombie overpowered me.

It took my arm, and bit me hard.

I screamed my lungs out as he teared through my skin, muscles and bloodvessels.

Suddenly, someone else kicked the zombie off me, another one dragged me away into the house.

'Get him away!' I heard a man's voice saying.

The man finished the zombie with a baseball bat kick to the head, and followed us into the house.

But from outside, more zombies came.

The man desperately tried to fend them off, but their combined strenght was to much for him, they tackled him, and began to tear at his flesh.

'Amir NOO!' the woman who dragged me screamed.

'GO!' Amir said, as he was being eaten alive by the zombies.

The woman closed the door behind us, and locked it, granting us a temporary breathing moment.

'Tower, this is Jade, mission accomplished' Jade said over a radio.

'Did you make it?' the voice from the other side said.

'Amir is dead, but I will bring in someone else' Jade said, and she silently started to weep.

She looked to me, and our eyes made contact.

I could see blue eyes and long black hair, she smiled at me with tears in her eyes.

The next moment, I fainted from the bloodloss.


	2. Chapter 1: Meetings

Chapter 1: Meetings

I could hear voices faintly in the distance, when I tried to talk back, my voice was slow, and barely hearable, even for my own eyes.

Slowly, the shadows for my eyes began te clear, and I could see figures appearing in front of me.

'Whoo... are' I barely got out.

'He's waking up' Someone said silently, like the person was in another room.

'He has to stay down for al least two more days, or he will die' Another voice said.

I could feel a person sit beside me on the bed, and I just managed to see the outlines of the face.

It was the same woman who saved me.

'Please' I said, and I saw her bringing a needle to my arm.

'Sleeping aid' she said, and she injected it into my arm.

Seconds later I once again faded into sleep, and let my arm fall beside me.

After wat seemed like an eternity, i once again began to wake up.

This time it was faster.

I tried my arms and legs, and managed to control them immediately.

'He's alive, pinch him, I dare you' I heard someone say.

'You first' Another one said.

I opened my eyes, and looked around me.

I was in a room, alone with my bed facing a window on the foots end, two meters on the left side there was a door.

Slowly, still half sleeping, I shoved my legs out of the bed.

'Zombie run!' I heard a couple of kids screaming as they left the room.

I stood up from the bed, I barely managed to stand.

I followed the kids out to the door, opened it, and walked into the room behind the door.

I could see the kids running like a killer was behind them, the other people in the room, I counted around twelve, looked at me like I had just stolen something.

'You sleep for six days, and then you scare kids?' One man said as he approached me.

'Nice start forty two' He said.

'Forty-two?' I asked.

'Yes you' The man said.

'Why am I forty-two?' I asked while I looked at the other people in the room.

'Ask the boss in room 497' the man said.

'Why am I here?' I asked.

'ASK the boss' the man sad demandingly, and he walked away.

I looked at the room number of the room where I came from, it was 348.

I began to walk around trying to find the room.

'What did he mean with forty-two? I asked to myself.

'Forty-two, that's your infected number, you are the forty- second infected overhere' a woman said as she heard me.

'I'm infected?' I asked.

'When Jade dragged you in here, you where already far gone, if not for Lena, you wouldn't have made it' The woman said, as she sat onto a bed that was standing in the hallway.

'Who are they?' I asked confused.

'Ask the boss!' the woman said irritated, and she lighted a siggaret.

'His room is upstairs' she said, her finger pointed to a staircase on her right side a few meters away.

I followed the stairs, and looked left and right.

Ten feet to my left I could see a guard sitting on a chair in front of a door, he was holding a rifle, and was staring in front of him.

As I looked to the top of the door, I saw that was room 497.

I approached him, and asked:

'Is the boss here?'

'Yes, he has been expecting you for some time now, you took your time' The guard said.

The guard opened the door and let me in.

I could see a person standing in front of a big window overlooking the city.

'You finally awoke?' the person asked.

'I did, you summoned me?' I responded.

'I indeed did' The person said, and he turned around and looked me in the face.

I looked at him with surprise, he was much younger and somewhat shorter as I had expected, was he really the boss?

'You certainly took your time' he said.

'I only woke up five minutes ago' I said while looking at him with a doubt.

'You think I'm not the boss because I'm to young?' He said as he saw my look.

'Well I..' I said before he interrupted me.

'No! You shouldn't judge people when you meet them!' He said angrily.

Suddenly, I could see my radio lying on the table on the boss's left.

'Can I please get that one back?' I asked.

'What? We saved your life, and you don't even want to share your stuff with us?' The guy said.

'Believe me pal, it's no use to it!' I said, trying to convince him.

'Fine!' The guy shoved my radio, along with another one from the tower back into my hands.

'Go change your clothes, you smell' He said.

I turned around and walked away.

Just before I opened the door, the guy said.

'Name's Rahim, and no I'm not the boss' Rahim said, faintly laughing.

'My name is Crane, Kyle Crane' I said, and left through the door.

Most of the people that I saw when I woke up had left, save for all the guards.

The towers people had left some clothes on top of my bed.

After a couple minutes I was once again outside, and still trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes.

The radio from the tower began to shake inside my pocket.

I yawned and answered.

'Yeah?' I asked as I pressed the button.

'Crane!, come to the rooftop, and prove that you are worthy of joining us' Rahim said over the radio.

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'Well, if you fail, we will kick you out' Rahim said and laughed.

'Okay then' I said, and I made my way to the rooftop.

I followed the same path to the bosses office, and took the stairway leading up.

Two floors later I reached a large door.

Harran's harsh winds blasted me in the face as I opened it.

'Crane? Are you there?' I heard someone shout from a distance.

'Rahim! Where are you?' I shouted back.

Out of nowhere, a crane zipped over my head, with Rahim on top.

'Rahim!' I shouted.

'Follow the arrows and complete every challenge I laid out for you' Rahim said, and the crane stopped.

I looked down and noticed a large white arrow pointed straight forward.

'Fine' I said, and I started to jog.

'Come on Crane, you can do faster' Rahim said laughing.

I met the first obstacle, a few bags of sand, five feet tall.

Without any effort, I streched my hand, jumped, and I was on the other side.

I followed the arrows down onto a unfinished part of the building, on one part balancing on a barely twenty centimeter wide steel bar.

'When you want to survive overhere with all the zombies you need to use your environment to your advantage' Rahim said as het followed my every step.

'One wrong step, and you're a zombies meal.'

'I'll show you' I said to myself.

'Your next challenge is climbing, when zombies come to close and you really need to escape, this is your way of not getting eaten, I figured that this will be hard for you' Rahim said.

The climbing looked exactly like the one on the military training ground four years ago.

I grabbed the steel bars that where shoved inside the wall of concrete, and climbed farther like a monkey.

In just a few seconds, I was on top of the concrete wall.

'Wow Crane, you done this before? You sure must have' Rahim said, as he watched me surprised.

'Never, the closest I came was running track on highschool' I said lying.

I followed Rahim's voice, carefully running on top of the unfinished walls.

I reached the rear end of the crane, and climbed on top of it.

Rahim was standing on the other end.

'You jump down here, and climb all the way back up to the crane, cross it, when you're done, you cleared my tests' Rahim said as he saw me approaching.

'Jump down here?' I said suprised, and looked down.

Maybe ten meters below i saw a huge pile of waste bags.

'There is no way you can survive that' I said and shaked my head.

'Are you sure?' Rahim said, he walked to the edge, and let himself fall backwards from the crane.

'Rahim no!' I screamed, and tried to grab him, but it was too late.

Seconds later I heard him crashing into the waste bags, and he started screaming.

'Rahim!' I screamed to him.

I heard him laugh.

'Come on crane, you really thought a little fall can kill you?' Rahim asked.

I chuckled, and jumped myself.

Rahim was right, the waste bags provided a soft landing.

'Try to catch me' Rahim said, and he began to run.

I followed him as hard as I could.

But he was just to fast.

Everytime I nearly had him, he jumped, climbed, or slided away.

After a short climb, Rahim led my back to the crane.

'You're old Crane, you can't even catch a guy like me' Rahim said laughing.

I followed him running over the crane.

When i was stil at half of the crane's arm length, Rahim was already on the other side.

'Isn't that funny? A crane on a crane? HAHAHA' Rahim said laughing.

When I had nearly reached the end of the crane's arm, my head began to become dizzy, a massive headache hit me out of nowhere, and i barelly managed to hold onto the crane's arm.

'Rahim!' I said, my voice very weak.

'What's going on?' Rahim asked from the other side.

'My head, I feel like it's exploding.' I said, and rubbed both sides of my skull.

'You must be having your first seizure, you need to get a new shot at Dr. Zere's' Rahim said.

'Does that mean I will turn?' I asked him.

'If you get your shot of antizine, no, not yet' Rahim answered.

The seizure faded away, and I went inside the tower.

'Doctor Zere is in a small camp nearby the tower, just two hundred meters and you're there.' Rahim said when I got in.

'Hurry, if you don't take the antizine shot in the next hour or two, you'll get your next seizure, and then you're in trouble' Rahim said.

'Good luck' Rahim said, as he returned to the rooftop.

I took the elevator down, which was appearantly still working, and ended up on the first floor.

'You seen Rahim?' A woman said as she approached me from behind.

'I did, he's on the rooftop' I said.

'And you must be Jade, you saved me' I said as I looked at her.

'I am' She said while looking at me.

'I still haven't got a chance to say thank you' I said to her.

'You want to thank me? Keep my stupid brother from killing himself, and don't get into my way' Jade said, and she walked away.

I turned around and continued to walk to the exit.

'Hey you, you're Crane right?' A man from behind a desk said.

'That's me' I said, and walked towards him.

The man stood up from his desk, and walked into his office to grab something.

When he got back, he laid a big shovel on his desk, along with a piece of wood with a big nail on the end.

'No one gets outside without a weapon to defend him or herself' He said.

I grabbed the shovel and thanked the man.

The entrance down to Harran was covered by a wall of barbed whire, with two lamps shining down into the opening.

'These lamps prevent any nightmares from getting in at night' A guard told me as he saw me looking.

'Nightmares?' I asked.

'Just don't go out at night and you'll be fine' the guard said.

I jumped into the opening and ran towards the entrance of the building.

Another guard with an assault rifle was guarding it.

'You want to go outside?' He asked

'I need to go to Dr. Zere's' I told him.

'You rather then me' The guard said, and he opened the door.

The very bright light blinded me for a moment, but I stepped outside.

'Two hundred meters from the tower he said' I said to myself.

As I looked to the left, I could see another encampment somewhat in the distance.

That had to be Dr. Zere's encampment.

After I had made a few steps outside, I noticed all the zombies in the streets.

It was crawling with them everywhere.

I climbed on top of a row of houses, the streets where just to densily packed with zombies.

When I reased the other side of the roof, my GRE radio began to ring.

'Crane here' I said as I answered it.

'Crane! It has been three day since your landing, we've been dying for an answer for days now.' The GRE woman said.

'I was bitten and lost consiousnes, I just woke up an hour or two ago' I said.

'Then you should be looking for the file even harder now' The GRE woman said annoyed.

'I'm infiltrating one of the major factions in the city, I will continue to report when I have new information' I said.

'Acknowledged' The woman said.

'Crane out' I said, and ended the connection.

I looked to the street below, trying to find a way out.

A car was in the middle between the house I was standing on, and another house in front of 's camp.

'Let's go' I said to myself, and I jumped to the car.

I landed with a loud chrash, the zombies immediately noticed me, and began walking towards me.

Without paying them any attention, I jumped to the other house, barely managing to grab the railing of the roof.

Suddenly, a zombie grabbed my leg.

I grabbed my shovel and gave the zombie a powerful kick, it stumbled back and fell into the crowds of the other gathering zombies.

'Fuck you' I said, and continued.

With one other jump, I entered Zere's camp.

Two of the guards inside approached me with their rifles aimed at my chest.

'I'm looking for ' I said.

'I'm here' I heard an old man say from behind the trailer.

Dr. zere came walking around, and walked towards me.

He was an african american man of around sixty years old, and walked with a slight discomfort in his left leg.

'Doctor, the people in the tower told me I should get my antizine shot here' I said as he stood in front of me.

'Ofcourse' Dr. Zere said, he urged me to follow him to his trailer.

'What is your name?' he said while opening his trailer.

'Name's Crane' I said.

'Sit here' Dr. Zere said, and offered me a chair.

'Are you still doing research?' I asked.

'It's a variation of rabies, I've been looking for a cure for a good four months now, with little succes' Dr. Zere said, and he prepared a syringe.

'Will I turn?' I asked.

'Get a new shot of antizine every four to six days and you're fine' Dr. Zere answered.

He emptied the syringe in my arm, and covered the wound with a piece of wool.

'Good to go, see you in a couple of days' Dr. Zere said.

'Thank you doc' I said, and I left his trailer.

'Crane, come' I heard someone say from a small house to the right of Zere's trailer in his camp.

I looked inside and saw a man typing on a computer.

'I need a job to do, and you seem just like the person I need' The person said.

'Fine, what do you need?' I asked.

'Tonight is the night when the leader of the tower will perform a big mission, but the traps that he needs to do it safely aren't activated yet, and everybody is busy, can you do it for us?' He asked.

'Sure, why not?' I asked.

'That's what I like to hear, we'll keep in contact via the radio, and I will show you what you have to do' he said.

'Name's Kyle crane' I said as i offered him my hand.

'Spike' he said as he took my hand.

'Before you go, take these firecracker, they can create a nice distraction when you need it' Spike said, and he gave me a bunch of them.

I nodded and left the house.

As i left Dr. Zere's camp, I made my way back to the tower.

I was halfway there when my radio started to ring.

'Crane, what you have to do is very simple' Spike said.

'Tell me' I said while jumping from a roof.

'You see the car standing in front of the tower?' Spike asked.

'I do' I said, and I ran to the car.

'Open the engine compartment, connect the green wire with the red one, and turn the switch' Spike said.

I opened the engine compartment, connected the wires, and flipped the switch, a big lightbulb on top of the car immediately responded and turned green.

'Is the light green?' Spike asked.

'Yes' I said, and I checked them another time.

'Up to the next one, it's a bit farther, about three hundred meters, just outside the big garage, you'll see' Spike said.

While I ran between some houses, my radio began to ring once again.

'Anyone runners near the tower right now?' I heard Jade saying.

'I am?' I asked.

'Crane right?' Jade asked.

'Yeah, what's wrong?' I asked.

'Guess you'll have to do for now, a couple of hours ago we lost contact with one of our runners, and he hasn't contacted us since, we need to find out what happened to him' Jade said.

'Where was he the last time you had contact?' I asked.

'Inside the big garage about two hundred meters northeast of the tower' Jade said.

I remained running and dodging the dozens of zombies on the streets, luckily for me they where to slow to even notice me passing by, and I reached the gate to the garage a minute later.

I climbed over the fence and stepped inside.

In the right corner on the other side was a small shed, two zombies where banging on it with their arms and feet.

I grabbed my shovel with both hands, and approached the left one from behind.

The zombie noticed me, and started to turn around to face me.

With a big swing using both my hands, I let the shovel crack the zombies skull open.

It fell lifelessly to the ground.

I grabbed the other from behind, and let the zombie fall on its side.

I got of, grabbed the shovel firmly, and I let it crush the zombies skull from the back.

I approached the shed slowly, and began listening at the door.

Growling and gurgling sound from the other side.

'Jade, I'm afraid he is too far gone' I said on the radio, as I opened the lock.

'Fuck! Fine, help him' Jade answered.

I threw the door all the way open in one big swing, and looked inside.

The man stood in the middle of the shed, he was breathing heavily, and was making hard gurgling noises.

He had turned.

With a swing of my shovel, I cut it's head of.

'It's done' I said to Jade with the zombies blood still spraying on me.

'Thank you Crane, he wasn't human anymore, back to you Spike!' Jade said, and Spike took over.

'Took you long enough' He said.

'Just outside you will find a car, just like the one in front of the tower.' he said.

I climbed the fence, en jumped on the roof of one of the buildings outside.

'I see it' I said, looking at the car in the middle of the road.

To my disgust, the car was completely surrounded by zombies, there was no way that I could reach the car without being eaten.

'Spike, I can't reach the car, it's completely surrounded by zombies' I said.

'You still have some firecrackers don't you? Throw them a couple meters from the car, the zombies will follow the firecrackers, and you can acces the car, easy' Spike said.

'Easy, right' I said, and grabbed one of the firecrackers from my pocket.

I lighted it, and threw it far from the car.

The zombies started to follow it, but to slow.

I threw another one, and when I was sure the car was free of zombies I jumped down.

Hastly I opened the car, connected the two wires, flipped the switch, and closed it again, all in less than ten seconds.

'Done' I said, while climbing to the rooftop.

'You're doing great so far Kyle, you now just have to flip two more switches on the telephone poles and you're done' Spike said.

'Where?' I asked.

'One hundred meters from here to the north, the pole is marked by a big white cross, should be easy to find' Spike said.

I took off, and jumped from the roof.

Ten meters from the car, the zombiecrowd began to become thinner, and I could run free on the ground having to run on top of cars.

Like Spike said, I found the pole relatively easy.

Four meters from the ground, a black box was attached to the pole, with a big switch in it.

I laid my shovel on the ground, and started to climb.

I flipped the switch, and jumped to the ground.

'Done, one more to go' I said over the radio.

'You did it faster then I expected Crane, you have my compliments' Spike said.

'Not done yet' I said.

'Yes, but the last one's the easiest' Spike said.

'It's on a pole three hundred meters from here, between the rails of the train system of Harran's industry and a big warehouse' Spike said.

'Easy enough' I said, and I began to run.

As I looked up to the sky as I was running, I could see it getting darker and darker by the moment.

'Faster Kyle, faster, you can do this' I said to myself.

The more I ran towards the rails, the more zombies began to obstruct my path.

I ran past them as fast as I could, but I still gathered a following.

'Eat this' I said to them as I lighted one more firecracker, and threw it to my side.

Luckily for me, they completely ignored me, focusing on the firecracker instead.

I reached to pole.

I once again laid my shovel on the ground, and began to climb.

But when I flipped the switch, I heard a loud snapping sound.

'It's fried Spike' I said.

'Jupiters cock, again? Jesus fucking christ' Spike said shouting.

'Alright, this is how you fix it, a substation is nearby, at the other side of the big warehouse in front of you, flip the big switch inside, this will reset the entire system, and the problem should be fixed.' Spikle said.

I jumped to the ground, and ran to the other side of the building.

As the firecracker had died out, the zombies resumed to follow me.

Another firecracker later I lost them once again.

I found the substation behind the warehouse just like spike said, and I climbed over the fence.

I quickly dispatched the two zombies inside by beheading them, and I started to open the shutter of the substation control room.

But out of nowhere, one huge zombie bursted outside, smashing the shutter into tiny little pieces, and throwing me three meter back.

'Oh dear god why!' I almost screamed.

'You want some you big fucking maggot head?' I said angrily, and I started to walk backwards.

The big zombie started to approach me, he lifted a big construction hammer above his head, wanting to strik me down.

At the last second i rolled away.

The hammer hit a gas cilinder, and it began to siss.

I just in time managed to jump inside the substation control room before it exploded, killing the big zombie with it.

I stood up, with some ringing in my ears, and flipped the switch.

Every light that was out shone again.

'It's done Spike, everything works again' I said.

'Great Kyle, you really helped us alot, now go back before the night falls.' Spike said.

I climbed over the the fence, and I ran to the tower.

When I was just outside, the tower's radio began to ring.

'Everyone outside has to find a place to sleep right now, the nightmares control the streets now' Jade said.

'Fuck me' I said, I ran as fast as I could.

I looked up at the sky, and noticed that it was completely dark, and my heartrate roze to new levels.

From my right I could here a zombie approaching rapidly.

I looked to it for just a second, the zombie had no skin anymore, it's jaws where split at the chin, and it's head was covered in bony spikes.

It screamed when it saw me, and started to run towards me.

I ran like I never had before.

Just in time I reached the garage, I jumped over the gate, ran towards the shed, and flipped the switch inside.

The lights on the four corners of the garage lit up, and shone a bright blue light over the garage.

The nightmare who followed me in the garage immediately started to scream, and ran out of the garage.

I locked the door of the shed, checken it more than ten times, before I finally fell down to sleep on the matress inside.


	3. Chapter 2: The big chase

Chapter 2: The big chase and other meetings

After what felt like an eternity, morning came.

I woke to the feeling of my radio shaking in my pocket.

Wiping the sleep from my eyes, i stood up, and opened the door.

'Crane here, just woke up' I said as i answered the radio,

'Crane, you're bloody late, it's already three o'clock in the afternoon!' Spike said.

'Three o'clock?' I said suprised.

'Anyway, you need to get back to the tower' Spike said.

I climbed over the fence around the garage, and began to run back to the tower.

'Despite your best efforts with the traps, the mission failed' Spike said.

'But your traps worked excellent, and that's the only positive thing about last night' Spike said.

Heavily breathing, i reached the door of the tower.

'Jesus Crane, you took your time' Jade said as she approached me from behind the tower's door entrance.

'Spike said you're coming' She said, and took me inside.

'What happened? Spike told me the mission failed' I asked.

'Failed is a misunderstanding, it failed so hard, we are now in desperate need of runners, we lost six good men and woman last night, and we nearly lost Brecken as well last night' Jade said, and she helped me climb to the first floor.

'Come to the conference room, and you'll hear the rest' she said.

I followed her up in the tower.

'How did the six runners die?' I asked.

'Ambushed by zombies and overwhelmed by sheer numbers, as Brecken said to us when he stumbled inside, they where literally torn apart, limb for limb.' Jade said.

'Brecken is inside, but don't speak too loudly, any hard noice gives him terrible headaches' Docter Lena said, who was sitting in front of the door to the conference room.

'Brecken, we can't let you do this, look to yourself damnit, you are barelly alive at this point you can't go out again' One guard said, who was standing in front of a table.

'I HAVE to go' Brecken said, as he slammed his fists against the table, causing him to shiver in pain.

'There is no one left to go' Brecken said, and he sat himself in a chair.

'I failed' he said.

'There are other ways to come by antizine' Another guard said.

'I'll go' I said suddenly.

'What?' brecken said, he looked to me, and stoop up.

'Yes Crane can help, he will be happy to' Jade said.

'No offense lad, but you're as green as grass' Brecken said, the next moment, he once again shivered in pain.

'Fuck Brecken, don't be so stubborn' Lena said, and she rushed inside to support him.

'Jesus, okay then, one more try and we go to Rais' Brecken said, and he offered my his hand.

I took it, and smiled.

'This night you will have new antizine' I said hopefully.

Brecken smickered, 'You are sure about yourself, just what you need'

Jade took me by the arm, and led me out of the room.

'You are crazy freaking crazy' she said as she closed the door.

'Why? I have to pay you guys back somehow' I said.

'You have no idea how dangerous it is, the dropping is at ten o'clock in the evening, close to nightfall, night will fall before you reach the last and then the nightmares will have you' She said.

'Do you see any other way?' I said while i pointed at myself.

'I AM infected' i said.

'I know, but you can't just throw your life away, take this' Jade said, and she shoved something in my hands.

'UV-flashlight, the only defence against the nightmares, give them one big blow with this thing, and get your ass away from it' she said.

'Now we just have to wait till tonight, come have something to eat' I said.

The hours ticked by slowly, but as they went by, I could feel an unease crippling down my spine.

The prospect of facing more nightmares simply took away all of my apitite, and I couldn't swallow a thing.

The things get myself into.

'The landing zones are three hundred meters to two kilometers away from the tower, the most near is just in front of the garage you slept in' Brecken said.

'Don't fail these people like I did' He said, i could see desperation in his eyes.

'Failure is no option to me' I said.

'The time has come' I said, standing before the entrance of the tower.

'Good luck out there Crane, you're our last hope before we go to Rais' Jade said, who was standing beside me.

'Let's hope for the best then' I said.

The clock reached ten before ten, just time enough to run to the landingzones.

'Once more into the frying pan' I said to myself, and I ran into the streets.

While I jumped and ran across the rooftops, I could see a clear, white, yellowish smoke coming from behind the garage.

I followed it, and jumped across the street to the garage, landing in a pile of garbage bags.

Immediately when I landed, I could hear the zombies coming.

The loud noice had granted me their undivided attention.

Shuffeling, some falling over their own legs, they came towards me.

I barrely managed to evade them, and followed the smoke.

The package had landed on a rooftop about forty meters from the garage.

The package was about three meters long, one high and wide.

While I climbed on the rooftop, the first of the zombies who had followed me from the street turned around the corner.

I watched into his lifeless eyes, but quickly resumed to climb.

With my heart pounding, I managed to reach the rooftop and I stood upright.

'Show me what you got' I said, as I rammed at the packages lock with a pipe I found on the rooftop.

It gave away rather easily, and I swung it open.

There was not a single drop of antizine to be found in the package, just medical supplies and some food.

'Jade, no luck here, no antizine' I said.

'Fuck, try the next one, and hurry, night is coming in an hour' Jade said over the radio.

Just as I finished speaking to Jade, a plane roared over my head, and dropped another package closeby.

It fell right into the garage.

I dropped down from the rooftop, landing on a zombie.

I ran as hard as I could, but when I got to the garage, someone else was already there.

Carefully I looked around the corner of the opening.

Three men in yellow suits similair to the suits worn by the men who attacked me when I landed in Harran stood before the package.

'Jade, Rais's men are here' I whispered through the radio.

'Do not engage them, go to the last drop, and hurry, night's falling' Jade said.

I ran past the garage, and crossed the street.

The last drop was about a mile away, north of the tower, near Harran's northern train station.

When I ran across the rooftops, I saw that the light around me was fading, with every minute that passed the light grew dimmer.

A couple of hundred meters away I could see the smoke from the package rising up in the sky.

I crossed the last rooftop, and I looked down onto the package.

This one was different than the others.

It was larger, and had a large red cross painted on the front.

Three zombies had gathered by the packages, obviously attracted by the sound of the package's fall.

I grabbed the pipe I had found on the rooftop of the first package with both my hands, and jumped.

The pipe landed in one of the zombies skull, burrying itself about twenty centimeters before stopping.

I grabbed my reserve knife, and stabbed one of the other zombies in the right side of the skull.

I tackled the last zombie by grabbing it's arm and pulling it the ground.

With a mighty stomp of my left boot, I crushed it's head.

I dislogded the pipe from the zombies skull, and rammed it into the lock of the package.

It sprang open.

I opened one of the smaller packages inside, and was finally greeted by antizine.

'Night has fallen Crane, get the HELL out of there!' Jade said over the radio.

I stuffed one of the packages with antizine in my backpack, and prepared to leave, a second one didn't fit.

I managed to put another twenty vials into my pockets, but the rest had to wait till morning came.

'Heading back to the...' I tried to say over the radio, but I was interrupted by a scream right on the other side of the house.

'RUN!' Jade said over the radio.

I ran, ran like I never had before.

I had never been so scared in my whole life before, not even in the firefights I had been in while in the army.

My heart felt like it pounded out my chest, but I continued.

I looked behind me once, and saw multiple nightmares behind me, their eyes looking at me like they wanted to rip the flesh from my bones while I am still alive.

Altough I was fast, it wasn't enough.

A hundred meters before the towers entrance, I saw that I couldn't make it, the nightmares where simply too fast for me.

Ten meters before the towers entrance, they caught me.

I quickly remembered Jade's UV-light, grabbed it, and gave the nightmare a blast to the face.

It's flesh began to smoke, and it howled in pain, failing of the rooftop.

I smiled in my small victory, but it was short lived.

Another nightmare rammed me from behind, and I fell with it from the rooftop.

It sank it's long clawlike nails deep into my chest.

I landed and gave the nightmare a blast from my UV-light and it was scared off.

I struggled to stand, and I barelly managed to get up the stairs to the entrance of the tower.

I felt the blood flowing out of my wounds.

'Jade' I said over the radio, before I passed out from shock.

I woke up a couple of minutes later as I was being carried around by Jade and Brecken.

I touched Jade with my bloodied right hand and tried to speak.

'Don't, you did well Crane, better then I had expected you to do' Jade said.

'Thanks to you, we won't have any antizine shortages for the coming weeks' Brecken said.

I passed out again.

When I woke up again, I had a headache.

Worse than I ever had before.

'Oh my god' I said, trying to get the sleep out of my eyes.

'Docter Lena gave you some morphine, your headache is a side-effect she said, should last only a couple of hours' I heard Jade say.

'Where am I?' I asked.

'In your room, I and Brecken helped you get here when you where still asleep' Jade said.

'So the tower doesn't need anymore antizine?' I asked.

'Thanks to you we're save for the coming three weeks' Jade said.

'But that eliminates just one problem, one problem in a sea of problems' Jade said.

'Brecken's calling, I will leave you' Jade said, and she left the room.

Suddenly, I could feel my GRE-radio ringing.

'Shit shit shit' I said, I stood up from my bed, locked the door, and the window, before I answered it.

'Crane, it's been over two bloody weeks since your drop, our deal was that you would inform us of your every move every day!' the GRE-woman said angrily.

'I know, I got sick, and helped some people out in the city' I answered.

'Don't waiste any time, you need to infiltrate one of the two factions in the city, if you are certain their leader isn't Kadir, move on' the woman said.

'Acknowledged' I said, and hung up.

I decided to go for a short walk around the tower.

As i approached the staircase, Jade stopped me.

'Crane, you know you shouldn't be walking around right now, your wounds haven't healed properly yet' Jade said.

'Believe me, i've felt much worse then this' I said.

'That's because the morphine is still working' Jade said.

'But anyway, remember I said that the tower had other problems than just antizine?' Jade asked.

'I do' I said.

'We need supplies, bad, and I've just found a new possibility to gather new supplies' She said.

'The men of Rais have just begun loading supplies into an abandoned school, and I want to raid it, but I can't do it on my own' Jade said.

'Count me in' I said.

'We'll go next week, I want to give your wounds some time to heal, and the supplies can wait for a couple of days.' Jade said.

'And if we can't make a deal with Rais in the coming days' Jade quickly said.

The nights in the tower where strangely quiet.

As the days went by, my wound slowly healed, to slow for my liking but according to docter Lena, I was lucky to be still alive.

The nightmare's claw had driven itself deep into my chest, leaving three wounds, all twenty centimeters deep.

One of the wounds was two centimeters away from my heart.

They all were quite suprised that I took it like it was nothing, but compared to what I had seen in the army, it was nothing.

Like all days in I made my way to the towers rooftop to think about what happened, and to clear my head.

Just as I opened the door, I could see Rahim sitting on the edge, staring into Harran.

'What ya doing?' I asked.

'I have a plan, just came up with it' Rahim said.

I sat beside him.

'You see the other appartment building about seven hundred meters to the right of the tower?' Rahim asked.

'I do' I said.

'Well, It's a big hive of nightmares, if we blow it up during the night, we can rid the city of a whole lot of those freaks, making nightly runs far more saver to do' Rahim said.

'It's to risky' I said.

'You're just like my sister, she thinks i'm far to reckless' Rahim said.

'Are you?' I said.

'Perhaps, but that hive really needs to go' Rahim said.

'If the hive comes down, it will be me who does it' I said.

'It's my plan!' Rahim said.

'Perhaps, but if I do it, it will be much safer' I said.

'Fuck you Crane' Rahim said, and he walked away.


	4. Chapter 3: Infiltration and betrayal

Chapter 3: Infiltration and betrayel

Someone knocked on my door.

'Kyle wake up, Brecken has something very important' Jade said.

'Fuck me' I said, as I got up from my bed.

Still half-sleeping i put on my clothes.

'Whats going on?' I asked, opening the door.

'Brecken has a new plan to deal with Rais, but he needs you' Jade said.

'Should be interesting' I said, and I grabbed a piece of bread from a stand close to my rooms door.

'He said we can't speak of it here, he fears the tower is already being infiltrated by Rais's men' Jade said, and she beckoned me to follow her.

'Where did you hide the explosives?' Jade asked while she climbed the stairs.

'Gave them to Saud, he told me he'll dismantle them, I think that's the best we can do with them, they are far to dangerous to use' I said.

'Fair enough' Jade said, and she opened the door to Breckens headquarters.

'If that isn't the best runner in the tower' brecken said smiling, and he gave me a hug.

'Close the door and every window, outside of this room, no one is to hear of this' Brecken said afterwards.

'So whats the plan?' i asked.

'Come here to the table' brecken said.

'Rais's base is here' Brecken pointed at a building on the map.

'And honestly, we have no idea what's going on there' Brecken.

'You want me to gather intell?' I asked.

'Your face is the only one he doensn't recognize, if i send Jade for example, he executes her on sight' Brecken said.

'Seems like a risky plan' I said.

'And do not forget to ask for antizine, our supply is very limited' Brecken said.

'Then i'll be on my way' I said, and I walked out the door.

Seconds later, I was stopped by jade.

'Kyle you really need this, if Rais wants to take you prisoner, shoot him' Jade said, and she gave me her pistol.

'Seems like you don't trust me with this mission" I said.

'To be honest Kyle, you are one of our best runners, maybe only Brecken before he got hurt was better, and we don't want to lose you' Jade said.

'Lives depend on you now' Jade said, and she walked away.

'What did I get myself into?' i said to myself.

I drank one whole bottle of water in one go, and I went to Rais.

His camp was about two kilometers to the north of the tower, right in the big appartment building district.

'Here take this' The quartermaster said when I arrived at the entrance of the tower, and he handed me a forty centimeter long machete.

'Brecken told me you could use this' The quartermaster said.

'Thank you' I said, and I jumped into the hole that was the entrance.

When I got out, the fell morning light almost blinded my eyes.

I quickly made my way down the stair, and started my run.

Luckily for me, unlike my time with Jade, the bridge wasn't blocked by zombies, and i could cross without any issue.

It was only two hundred meter from the bridge that I met my first zombie.

I kicked it in the chest, and the zombie fell backwards into a little pond below.

It seemed like the closer I came to Rais's compound, the more zombies appeared in front of me.

Suddenly, I got at a square, and it was packt to the brim with zombies, there where so many, I couldn't even count them.

When they saw me, hundreds of zombie heads turned around, and they immidiately started to follow me.

Out of the giant group of zombies, two ran much faster than the others, and only a couple of seconds later they made their way out of the giant group, and ran towards me.

'Fuck me', I said, and I ran in the opposite direction.

The two zombies followed me relentless.

I entered a building and quickly closed the door, but they just rammed the door and broke inside.

With the two zombies inside the same house, I jumped out the window.

I landed and immediately grabbed my knife, I just knew I couldn't escape them, so I had to kill them.

The two zombies followed me out of the window, and the first one jumped out.

I grabbed the zombie and rammed my knife deep into the base of his skull, killing him instantly.

As I looked to my right, I could see an unfinished wall of concrete, with one metal rod still sticking out, I got a plan.

The other running zombie jumped out, and as he jumped from the window, I caught him, and impaled him on the metal rod, from beneath his chin al the way to the top and out the other side.

I gasped and returned to my journey.

I completely evaded road now as it was still packed with zombies.

When I crossed the first street I saw, I could see the flag of Rais's men on a appartment building about a hundred meters in front of me.

I looked at the guards and I was sure they didn't see me.

I approached further.

It was only when I was fifty meters away when they finally saw me.

'Hold your ground!' One of them said, and he aimed his gun at me.

'Where are you from? What do you need?' another one asked.

'I'm from the tower, we need supplies and antizine now' I said.

They both laughed.

'I told you they would come to us?' one of them asked.

'Wait here, I'll ask if you can come inside' one left.

I was left standing rather uneasy in front of the Rais's camping, constantly looking around me for approaching zombies.

About five minutes later the guard came back.

'Rais says welcome to you, come inside' the two guards once again laughed.

The big metal gate started to open, and I walked inside.

It immediately shut after I was inside.

'Was I trapped now?' I thought to myself.

'Come with my, I'll introduce you to the boss' One of the guards said, and he walked with me.

A second gate, in the middle of what used to be a road under the building opened, and I finally stepped inside Rais's compound.

'Boss, this one from the tower' the guard said.

A short man, approximately in his fifties beckoned with his hands to us to stop.

'How long has it been Hassan? five, six months?' Rais said as he walked around the man who was kneeling on the ground.

The man only cried.

'It suprised when you dared to steal from me!' Rais said, and he grabbed a machete that was just lying around.

'I trusted you, and you betrayed me' Rais said, and he laid his machete on the mans neck.

'And sadly I have to punish you' Rais said.

The man cried even louder.

'Which one of your hands, right or left?' Rais asked, and raised his machete above his head.

'Left left!' The man screamed before the machete came down and severed his right hand.

'I'm so sorry, was it my left, or your left?' Rais laught evily.

The wounded man was carried away by two guards.

'So, man from the tower, ask what you want and I will deliver?' Rais said while cleaning his machete of blood.

'The tower needs supplies and more antizine' I said.

'Don't we just all need it, sweet cold antizine?' Rais said, and opened a box from the ground.

It was stuffed with antizine vials.

'If you want to have this, you'll have to work for me' Rais said.

'What do you want' I said, not moving even one step out of the way as he approached me.

'It has appeared that a few of my men have been attacked while they where carrying supplies out of a school depot, perhaps you can find the ones who did it' Rais said.

'Karim will explain everything to you' He said.

I looked at Rais for a moment.

'Remove yourself from my sight' Rais said, and he pointed to a door.

In the first few moments that we had met, I already despised him to the bone.

What kind of human being could cut of a hand for the simple fact the man was stealing?

I walked to the door and opened it.

Immediately when I entered, a foul smell entered my nostrils.

What was happening in this place?

When I tried to walk further, I was stopped by two armed guards.

'What is your purpose here?' One of them asked.

'I need to go to Karim, Rais send me' I said.

'Is it?' the guard said.

'Then on your way, you don't want to leave Rais waiting' The other guard said, his eyes fixating on me.

'Where's Karim?' I asked.

'You tower people can't do anything for yourself!' The guards said.

'Take the first hallway right, and the second door on your left' One of the guards said.

I walked away, but before opened the door to the hallway, I could hear the two guards speaking about me.

'You really think he's going to hold out hear for more than five minutes?' One said.

'I don't know, he looks really though, almost like Tahir' The other said.

'I would like to see them fight to the death, should be fun to watch'

I closed the door to the hallway behind me, and walked to Karim's office.

I knocked on the door, and Karim responded within seconds:

'Come in' Karim said, and I opened the door.

'Hello stranger from the tower, you're looking for some work?' Karim asked.

'I am' I said.

'What's your name?' Karim asked.

'Kyle Crane' I said, beginning to feeling angry.

'Crane, almost like bane, but with a tiny little twist' Karim said.

'Where you from, New york?' He asked.

'Chicago' I said.

'Aaah! Cowboy, I really think it's going to be a pleasure to work with you' Karim said.

'God I hope not' I said.

'Don't be so silly, I think you and I will like each other' Karim said.

'What do you guys want from me?' I asked.

'Your first assignment is to restore communications between old town and the slums, that way Rais can communicate with his groups outside of his slums headquarters' Karim said.

'And how do I do that?'

'Simple, there are three communication towers in the slums, you must try each one, because we don't know which one isn't scavanged yet, and when you find the one, install this in the motherboard to reset the communication tower in order to restore the communications' Karim said, and he handed me a small chip.

'Why can't your men do it?' I asked.

'Most of them are too fat, too slow or too lazy' Karim said.

'We'll be in touch over de radio' Karim said.

'Good luck' Karim said when I left the door.

'Why?' I asked.

'Just so you now, one of the communications tower is surrounded by a hord of zombies, but I don't think that's going to be a trouble for you?' Karim asked.

'I fucking hate you guys already' I said angrily, and finally left.

Without looking at any of the faces of Rais's men, I left.

I was almost to the gate, before I was stopped by someone.

'Do we know each other?' the person said, and I turned around.

It was one of the guys who attacked me when I landed, the tall one to be exact.

'No we don't fuck off' I said, and I walked through the gate.

I looked back once and saw him looking at me with a vile face.

I suddenly felt my GRE radio ringing.

I ran to an abandoned train in front of Rais's headquarter and climbed inside.

'Agent Kyle Crane' I said.

'Report' The GRE woman said.

'I'm infiltrating the other big faction in the city, this one is extremely likely to be led by our target' I said.

'Good work Crane, we have fate in you, continue what you're doing' The GRE woman said.

'Crane out' I said, and I ended the connection.

'Karim, where's the first tower?' i asked over the radio.

'Three hundred meters from here, you should be seeing it right now over the trees' Karim said.

I looked for a bit and found what he ment.

'Hurry' Karim said.

I ran across the traintracks, and I soon found them to be lying next to the communications tower.

But just like Karim said, the place was crowded with zombies.

There was no way I could get on top of the tower without being caught and killed by the zombies.

But I got an idea.

I used to use molotovs in the army against enemy tanks, maybe they worked against these undead freaks?

I grabbed a stray bottle from the ground, and checked it for any leaks.

When I was sure it was completely sealed, I began to search for cars.

A few moments later I found the first one close to the communication station, but it had been burned out.

The second one, about twenty meters to the right, was intact.

I forcefully opened the fuel safety cap, and I let the fuel flow into the bottle.

I filt it to the brim, and closed it of with a wire and a piece of cloth.

I walked back to the crowd of zombies.

They had all gathered in front of the gate, some had their hands stretched out to me, and tried to grab me.

'Fuck you all' I said, and I ignited the clotch with my lighter.

I walked a couple meters back to a safe distance.

I threw the molotov, and watched it fly through the sky.

When it hit the fence, it exploded violently.

It covered all the zombies in hot burning fuel.

But they didn't even feel it.

It took around five minutes for the fire to burn through the skin and reach the brain.

That's when they finally died, without uttering a single word, just standing without saying a single word as their flesh was being melted of their bones.

The flames finally died out, and around thirty zombies where burned to a crisp.

I climbed over the fence.

The station was completely empty.

I looked to the right and saw the communications tower rising up to the sky.

This was going to be one hell of a climb.

I grabbed the first horizontal steel beam of the structure, and began to climb.

About three meters above ground, I couldn't get further, the way was blocked by a smooth solar collector, and I had nothing to grab onto.

Carefully, without looking down, I shuffled to my right, and climbed further on the left side of the tower, which didn't have solar collectors.

I could feel my arm muscles hurt, so I climbed inside the tower to rest for a little bit.

Inside the tower there was a small pad, probably used by technicians to perform controls on the tower.

But the control pad was nowhere to be found.

I resumed my climb.

A minute later, I reached the control pad, which was located at the very top of the tower, forty meters above ground.

At this hight, Harran's strong wind almost made me fall.

I grabbed onto one of the towers steel beams, and I struggled towards the control pad.

When I got to it, I was horrified.

There was nothing, the whole board was empty.

Every piece of copper, every socket and every circuit was gone.

'Karim, this one is already looted' I said over the radio.

'Fuck, you have to try the other ones' Karim said.

'What if they are looted aswell?' I asked.

'I hope for your sake they aren't' Karim said.

'Hopefull bastards' I said, and I started to look for a way down.

One the other side of the platform, there was a thick rope down, which reached all the way down.

'The things I get myself into' I said, and covered both of my hands with cloth, and jumped down on the rope.

I reached the ground in less than six seconds.

'Fuck me, I'll have to do that more often' I said to myself.

I started to look for the next tower.

After a minute or two of searching, I saw it.

It was about a kilometer from this one, far to the south.

I drank some water from my bottle, and began to run to it.

The way to the next one was covered by little trees, all standing straight next to each other.

It took me some time to realize it was a apple garden before the apocalyps of Harran happened.

Some of the trees still had fruits attached to them.

I grabbed one of them, and took a bite.

It tasted sweet, but also a little bit sour.

Almost like life was at this point in the city.

I almost forgot where I was, so when a zombie approached me from behind, I only heard it at the last possible second.

I punched it in the skull, and it fell to the ground.

When I got out of the apple farm, I saw the quarantine wall rising up to the sky, closing of all people from going out, and also reminding me of the situation I was in.

After two minutes of running through small streets, poorly built houses, and piles of zombies, I finally reached the second tower.

Luckily for me, this one's complex was completely empty.

I quickly got inside and climbed to the top of the tower.

And to my disgust, this one was also empty.

'Karim, this one's also empty' I said over the radio.

'I think you're out of luck, you won't get any supplies or antizine if the last one is empty aswell' Karim said.

'Your last chance is not far from here, about half a kilometer to the north, I wish you luck Crane' Karim said, and hang up.

I took a breath, and descended down from the tower.

I spotted the last tower quickly.

The way to it was right through a market.

Some of the market stands where still there.

But most of the food had gotten bad, and a terrible smell hang around the market, so bad that I had to cover my nose with my shirt.

Somewhere in the market something was on fire, and produced a thick, black smoke, making it unable to see a hand in front of my eye after twenty meters.

I grabbed a stick from the ground and tried to find my way with it.

But luckily, I didn't touch anything.

When I crossed the market, I looked straight up to the tower.

'Hope for the best' I said to myself.

Just when I wanted to to climb over the fence, a giant zombie broke out from one of the houses in the complex, and roared loadly.

I already saw that there was no way I could reach the top of the tower without killing the zombie.

He blocked the right path to the tower, and the other one was crowded by zombies.

How was I going to do this?

I bowed my head to fence, desperately trying to think.

'Come on, come on! Think you stupid little fucker' I thought to myself.

At that moment a power generator caught my eye.

'What if I...' I said, thinking to myself.

The generator wasn't on, but a large wire that came from the output source laid in a little puddle.

'Let's pray it's filled' I said, and climbed over the fence.

Carefully, and trying not to alert any zombies, I sneaked my way to the generator.

When I got my hand at the generator, the giant zombie finally noticed me, and charged to me.

I flipped the switch, and jumped out of the way.

The giant zombie touched the puddle of water.

His body stiffened, and began to smoke.

The high voltage fryed his brain, and killed him instantly.

I switched the generator off.

The way to the tower was now free.

The zombies from the other way began to walk to me, so I had to act fast.

I climbed faster than I had before, when I reached to top, I was panting.

I looked to the control pad, and to my joy, it was still intact.

I got the little chip from my backpack and opened the control pad.

Right in the middle of the screen, there was a little hole.

I inserted the chip, and flipped a couple switches.

I waited a couple seconds before I flipped the main switch.

When I did, a green light on top of the control pad shone brightly.

'Is it done' I asked to Karim.

No answer.

I sat down on the edge of the platform staring in front of me, tired from all the climbing.

Seven minutes later, my radio began to vibrate.

'Everythings okay now?' I asked.

'Even better than we expected, you did an awesome job Crane, come back to the bunker to claim your reward' Karim said in a suprisingly clear voice.

It was much better than before, before I had flipped the switch, you really had to listen carefull to understand anything that was said over the radio, but now you could hear anything clearly.

'Does this mean that the people of the tower will be able to talk to each other more clearly?' I asked to Karim.

'Yes, the communications for anyone is now vastly improved' Karim answered.

I jumped down from the tower with the cable.

Most of the zombies who gathered beneath me had gone somewhere else.

I walked to the fence and climbed over it.

The smoke on the market quare had completely vanished, and I could see clearly.

No more than a few zombies where walking around on the square, it was mostly empty.

I crossed it without any zombies noticing me.

I quickly made my way back to the tower, we needed the supplies, and I didn't want to waste a single minute.

As I was about halfway back, I noticed the sun starting to fall.

I ran even harder, and five minutes later, I had reached Rais's headquarters.

'He's back' the two guards on the wall said when they saw me.

'Open the gate' I said.

The first gate opened and I stepped inside.

The second gate opened, and I was greeted by Rais himself.

'You have proved your worth well' Rais said.

'Now you give me the supplies and antizine' I said.

'Did I say that? Really? Can't remember that' Rais said laughing.

'You motherfucker, you promised me the box of antizine, and more!' I said angrily.

'No you get your antizine and supplies when I say it so' Rais said, and he pointed to his breast.

'And not one second before' He said.

'You still have much more to do, and if you complete those tasks, then, and only then will you recieve your antizine' Rais said.

I looked around me to see if I had an opportunity to kill this piece of shit.

There was none.

Rais was extremely well guarded, even by looking very quickly, I already counted twenty armed soldiers of his.

If I dared to shoot him, I would be dead in a matter of seconds.

'Come back tomorrow, and we'll have your next objective, but don't be to late' Rais said, and he turned his back to me.

I walked out the gates, and slowly made my way back to the tower.

Out of anger I kicked a bottle, causing it to fly in the air, and hit a zombie in the head.

'The fucking basterd' I said to myself.

I still couldn't believe it.

What if he crossed my tomorrow aswell?

I tried not to think about it.

But the worst thing about the fact that I got nothing was that I had to tell Jade and the others.

I reached the bridge in front of the tower, and stopped for I second to think about what I was going to say.

I walked the remaining meters very slowly, before I made my way up in the tower.

'Do you have anything?' Jade said, while running towards me.

'Nothing, the bastard crossed us' I said.

'Christ Crane, we're as good as out of antizine, alot of people got seizures today, it was terrible' Jade said.

'He said I had to return tomorrow' I said, and I went to my room.

'We believe in you Crane' Jade said.

'That's nice to hear, thank you' I said.

I closed my rooms door, fell on my bed with my clothes still on, and fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 4: Never trust a politician

Chapter 4

'Never trust a politician'

Right after it became dawn, I was back at Rais's headquarters.

I looked at him with anger in my eyes, but he didn't even seem to care.

'Crane, you came back' Rais said when he saw me.

'I come back to claim what is mine!' I said, approaching him slowly.

Two guards jumped between me and Rais, preventing me from doing anything to Rais.

'Yes, do what you americans are so good in, lose control, stupid fucking animal' One of the guards said.

'If you complete your tasks today, you will get all the antizine you can handle, I promise you' Rais said with a smirk.

I didn't believe him in the slightest, but I had to try, there was no other way.

And the next antizine drops would only happen in a week or two, time we didn't have.

'What do I have to do?' I asked.

'Karim will be in touch with you over the radio, good luck Cran, you're going to need it' Rais said while he sarcastically smiled.

'Remove yourself from this compound now' Rais said while waving at me and turning his back on me.

Three guards forced me outside.

When they threw me out the door, they laughed.

Never before in my whole life did I have the urge to kill someone so bad as I did right now.

It suprised me that I didn't snap right then and there.

'Crane, you can hear me?' Karim said over the radio.

'I'm here' I said angrily.

'You know, we protect a lot of people in this city, but they've got to pay' Karim said.

'You want me to be your fucking debt collector?' I asked.

'You're smarter than you think Kyle' Karim said.

'Alright, were do I have to go?' I asked, pinching myself for ever agreeing to working with Rais.

'There is a small village close to the bridge, it was mostly used for fishing, but now it's an refuge camp.

' Karim said.

'You want me to collect money from refugees?' I asked suprised.

'You are all freaking devils!' I said.

'Perhaps we are, but we need the money, and you need the antizine right, so hurry' Karim said, and he hanged the radio.

I knew exactly where the camp was.

When I flew over Harran in my parachute, I saw a small village right beside the big bridge that connected Harran with the outside world.

From where I was right now it was a good twenty minutes walk.

Right after Rais's compound, I turned right, went up the stairs of the park and stopped from a quick breath.

I walked to the edge of the parks fence, and looked outside.

Far in the distance I could see the small fishers village.

It was right after going through the tunnel which laid right beside the place I discovered the antizine dropping.

It was crowded with zombies.

I moved over the rooftops of nearby houses, jumping and running at the same time.

When I got close to the tunnel, I prepared to jump.

All of the zombies in the direct vicinity moved towards me.

They smelled god awfull.

I smelled terrible things in my time in the army, but this smell easily topled everything.

It was so strong that it penetrated my nostrils, even when I covered them.

When I looked a bit inside the tunnel I saw what caused it.

A truck loaded with chemicals had toppled, and had released it's content ontop all of the zombies in the tunnel.

I jumped down ontop of a car below.

Immediately, I ran straight through the tunnel, not looking down even once to the zombies inside.

The entire time I was inside the tunnel I didn't took a breath, not even once.

But even when I got outside, I got dizzy.

I ran between the dead and the zombies, and got behind a small house.

My stomach realeased all it's contents, and I continued.

Ten meters beyond the tunnel, I reached the village.

Strangely enough the gate was open, and multiply zombies walked around in the village.

'Karim, someone opened the door of the village, and the place is overun by zombies' I said.

'You came to collect to protection money, do some fucking protecting!' Karim said.

I closed the gate behing me and barricaded it with a large piece of wood.

Five zombies shuffled around in the village.

One of them look bloated like a dead person would be after a few days in the sun.

When it saw me, It slowly walked towards me.

I grabbed my knife and aimed.

When it was about seven meters away, I released the knife.

It landed right in the belly of the bloated zombie.

A second later, It exploded.

The explosion was extremely powerfull, much more than I had imagined.

It was like a grenade, just slightly weaker.

But because three of the other zombies had walked to close to the exploding zombie, they had exploded into pieces, and where dead.

I dispatched the last zombie by impaling it from the chin all the way through the skull.

'The zombies are dead, you can come out!' I said loudly.

But no one answered.

I heard some voices from one of the houses, so I knocked on the door.

When they didn't respond, I climbed to the balcony and opened the door.

A man and A woman stared at me.

'I'm here to collect the protection money' I said.

'You'll not get anything from us!, you took to much already' The woman said.

'Tell him be a fucking man!' She said to the other man in the room.

'I know, but whe can't survive without their protection' the man said, and he reached in his back pocket to grab a stack of money.

'Back in my time, we would have kicked the shit out of this asshole' the woman said and she left the room.

'I would repair the gate if I where you' I said to the man.

'We'll look into it' The man said.

I got outside and climbed down the balcony.

'Karim, I collected the first set of money, where do I go now?' I asked over the radio.

'Very well done Crane, the second location is just a couple hundred meters from here, under the bridge and into a walled compound, the walls are painted with a bright red colour, you shouldn't mis it' Karim said.

I continued my journey and started to run.

It was rather dark under the bridge.

Only a few zombies where present under the bridge.

I ran to fast for them to notice me.

One large zombie blocked my way onto a pad towards the red walls Karim had mentioned.

I kicked it so hard it tumbled down, and fell all the way down the cliffs just a few meters away.

I walked all the way to the other side of the path, not looking down over the cliffs I had just kicked the zombie into seconds ago.

The fact that I had collected money from people that couldn't defend themselfs made me feel sick of myself.

Even in my time in the army I hadn't done A thing similiar.

Yes it was true, i killed people, but never when they didn't derserve it.

It took all of my military discipline to continue on my quest from Rais.

Just a hundred meters after I had stepped of the wooden path, I could see the red wall just right of my, on the right of a square filled with zombies.

'Fuck' I said to myself.

I ran as fast as I could past them, and climbed on top of A house.

Moving on top of the rooftops, I evaded all the zombies.

I drank somewhat from my bottle before I took the last jump into the red walled compound.

I landed on the ground right beside an opened truck that was carying wood.

'Why are you here what do you want?' One man said from inside one of the houses.

'I'm here to collect your debt' I said, and I walked inside.

'We've already paid of you bloodsuckers, why do you have to bleed us dry?' The man said with anger in his eyes.

'Look, do I really have to report back to Rais and tell him you are refusing to pay?' I asked.

'Do I even have to mention how easy it would be to set this place on fire?' I asked.

'Fuck all of you' the man said and he got up from his chair.

He grabbed a small bag from a shelf right beside his desk, and threw it to me.

'Here, that's all we have left' The man said.

'Believe me pal, I don't want to do this' I said to him, trying to make me feel better of myself.

'And yet you are still doing it? aren't you' The man.

I quickly got out of the safezone and contacted Karim.

'I got the money, but I fucking hate myself now, so that's great' I said.

'You're not the only one here' Karim said.

'Where's the last place I have to go to?' I asked.

'It's inside a former garage repair shop, you should find it somewhere to the north of the of this compound' Karim said.

I drank the last of my bottle and made my way to the last pic.

In this part of the city the streets where not very crowded by zombies like they where close to the tower.

'Why did I ever agreed to get into this city?' I asked myself.

Sure the pay was nice, but was it worth it?

Robbing al these people of their hard earned cash.

Slowly, I thought crawled up my spine.

Rais was an awfull person, It wouldn't suprise me if he stole the document.

I decided to contact the GRE.

'Crane here, I think I've contacted our person of interest' I saido over the radio to the GRE.

'Very well done Crane, we anxiously await any new news from you' The GRE woman said.

'We'll be in touch.

Just as I made my way past a gas station, I could hear a woman screaming.

'Please help me!' She screamed.

I stopped for a moment.

I knew I couldn't let the woman die.

I went to help her.

'What's going on?' I asked.

Just when I reached the person who screamed, I found that it wasn't a woman at all.

It was a small child, maybe eightyears old and crying hard.

'It's okay' and I reached out to her.

The child hugged me en tried to speak under her tears.

He captured mommy, you have to help her.

'You tell me where your mother is and I promise you that I will bring her back' I said.

'She is inside the house overthere, a man captured her, I just managed to escape' She said.

'Wait inside this house' I said, and opened a door of the house we where standing right beside.

I quickly checked it for any zombies inside, before I pushed the child inside.

'I opened the door of the other house where the child said her mother was.

'Anybody here?' I asked while I grabbed my knife.

'Fuck!' I heard a man saying, and a small hatch opened.

'What are you doing here?' The man said while he climbed from the hatch.

'You have a woman down there, I need her back' I said, and I pointed to the hatch.

'Who told you this?' the man asked.

'A girl' I said.

'Fuck, I should've killed her!' The man said.

'It doesn't matter, I will kill you instead' The man said, and he attacked me.

He tried to attack me with his hammer, but I evaded him.

I got behind him, and grabbed him by his arms, and pushed him down.

'Don't do anything stupid' I said, trying to calm the man.

'Fuck you' the man said and he kicked me in my stomach.

He attacked me again, and kicked me all the way to the other side of the house.

I had no choice, so I grabbed my knife.

The next moment he tried to hit me with his hammer, I grabbed his hammer with one hand and stabbed him right in the neck with my other hand which contained the knife.

He suffocated in his own blood and collapsed.

I stabbed him once in the skull to prevent him from coming back as a zombie.

I went down the hatch.

I saw a woman hanging from chains on the wall.

She was almost naked.

The man had tried to rape her, but I interrupted him.

'You alive' I asked the woman.

'Not again please!' the woman said crying.

'No I'm not going to rape you, i'm here to help you, your rapist is dead' I said.

'He is?' the woman said, and she looked at me.

'Let me free you.' I opened the locks, and let the woman fall to the ground.

'Where is my daughter?' the woman asked while putting on her clothes.

'I told her she was to hide in a house nearby, we'll go to her.' I said, and I helped the woman get up the hatch.

Just when we came out the hatch, I could hear a child screaming and crying.

'Oh no' I said.

I ran out the house, and jumped to the other house with the girl inside.

The screaming and crying became harder.

'Fuck fuck fuck fuck' I said, and I searched for the girl.

I rammed the door open, and got inside.

'Oh my god no' I said, as I saw one zombie ontop of the little girl.

With all the power I had, I stabbed the zombie in the head.

But I was to late.

The zombie had bitten the little girl in the arm, tearing out a large portion of it.

The arm was bleeding heavily.

I ripped a large piece of cloth from my shirt and I tried to make a bandage of it.

The little girl collapsed in my arms from bloodloss.

I desperately tried to cover the bite wound with the improvised bandage.

The child's mother got inside the house, and when she saw that her child had been bit, she collapsed in tears.

'Jade, Kyle here, I've got a massive problem' I said over the radio.

'What's going on?' Jade asked.

'I've got a child here with a bitewound, tell docter Lena to prepare surgery immediately, and send someone here to come get the child and her mother' I said, applying pressure to the wound of the kid.

'Fuck, I'm coming immediately.' Jade said.

'Where is it?' she asked immediately afterwards.

'Just beside the the gas station, near the bridge, hurry.' I said, and I ended the connection.

The next few minutes went by extremely slowly.

The mother of the child became hysterical and began to cry loudly.

'She's not going to make it' I said to myself.

The bandage was soaked in blood already, and more was pouring out from under the edge of it.

Jade stormed inside the building and looked at the child.

All the colour from Jade's face disappeared instantly.

'Get her to Lena!' I said.

Jade lifted the child in her arms, and ran with her back to the tower.

The mother followed, still hysterically crying.

When they left, I collapsed to the floor.

I looked at my blood covered hands, and one tear crippled from my eye.

I took me some moment to collect myself.

'You reached the garage already?' Karim asked over the radio.

'I'm a little busy at the moment.' I said.

'Hurry up Crane, Rais doesn't have a lot of patience' Karim said.

I got out the outside and went back to what I was doing before I met the child.

I located the garage just a hundred meters north from the house, and I got inside.

'Who are you, what do you want?' an old man asked me from inside a house.

'I'm here to collect protection money from Rais, he said you have a debt with him that needs to be settled.' I said.

'And who says we can trust you on your words that you are one of Rais?' the old man said, and he got outside the house.

'Look we can do it like this, I break your legs and kill everyone inside and then take your money, is it that what you want?' I said to the man while threathening him with a knife.

'Christ I now you are one of Rais, only one of his accomplishes would be so terrible' The old man said and he grabbed a pack from under his desk.

'You have to take my word for it that I don't want to do it, I am really sorry, I promise you' I told him as I took the money.

'Aren't we all?' the man said, and I left the building.

'Karim, I collected the last money, I'm coming back now' I said.

'Took you more than long enough' Karim.

'And I am bloody sure I get to hell now' I said.

'Welcome to the club' Karim said.

I started to walk bag to Rais's compound.

I was sweating heavily, and I wished more than ever that I never got into the city.

If they told me I had to do this while I was in the city, I would never have accepted the money, not even the huge amount I got.

Just when I was halfway back, my radio began to ring.

'Kyle?' I asked.

'You need to locate a group of soldiers from Rais, he lost contact with them just now, they where carrying a important piece of information about a weapon, and it can't be lost' Karim said.

'What if I can't locate it?' I asked.

'Don't even bother coming back' Karim said.

'Fuck all of you' I said.

'Where did you lose the contact' I asked.

'A couple of hundred meters from the base, close to a gas station, hurry now' Karim said.

It took me a couple of minutes before i had found the gas station.

A few seconds later I found the first of Rais's patrol.

He was killed by so many bullets, he was hardly recognizable.

I searched his body, but the document was nowhere to be found.

I found the second one just five meters beside the first one.

He had as many bullet holes as the first one.

But he didn't have the document on his body as well.

I saw the third one lying dead just before the door of the gasstation.

I started to walk towards him before I was stopped by gunfire.

Someone from ontop of the gasstation was shooting at me, and I managed to get into cover just in time.

He had pinned me down.

I started to count his shots, if I did it correctly, I knew when he was reloading, and I had a chance to get closer.

He again shot a spray of seven bullets at me.

Together with the ones before, made it fourteen.

He once again sprayed my position with bullets, before I heard a click.

His magazine was empty.

I ran like I never had before, I slammed the door of the gas station open, en went to the roof.

The man hadn't even finished reloading before I was ontop of him.

I stabbed him so hard in the neck that the blade just disappeared in him.

With him trying to cover his neck with his right hand, I pushed him of the roof.

I got down from the roof, en I checked the body right in front of the gas stations opening door.

It had the document right under his dead body.

'I got the document Karim' I said.

'Good, now come back, the days almost over' Karim said.

I started to walk back.

I looked up to the sky and saw that it was almost getting dark.

I had no idea a whole day had passed already.

A couple minutes later, i reached Rais's headquarters.

The guards opened the gate, and I got inside.

'Antizine now' I said when I saw Rais.

'You did very well Crane' Rais said when he saw the back with money and the document in my other hand.

'Here you have your fucking money' i said, and I handed it over it him, along with the document.

'Antizine now' I said again, fixing my eyes on Rais.

'Do you need it?' Rais asked sarcastically.

'Two boxes, you promised two boxes!' I said angrily.

'I'll give you eight vials from the goodness of my heart because you wrinkled the document' Rais said, and he handed me eight vials.

'If you want more than that, than you have to hand the scorpion over to me' Rais.

'And why should I do that for you?' I said, my eyes fuming with anger.

'If you want to have the rest of the antizine, bring her, I'm wondering how long a person of her character will take before she... breaks' Rais said.

'No fucking way' And I turned around to get back to the tower.

'Save the girl, or save the people, you can't choose both' Rais said while laughing.

'I pray I see the day you die Rais' I said so soft that no one heard.

Without looking back, I left Rais's headquarters.

A couple of meters out, someone called me by the radio.

'Crane, you have to get back now with the antizine!, we have a terible emergency situation' Jade said.

'Rais crossed us, he only gave me eight vials' I said defeated.

'HE did what?!' Jade said.

'Fuck Crane! Come back here immediately!' Jade screamed over the radio.

I ran the fastest I could, but it was still a long walk back.

It took me the better part of seven minutes before I finally reached the steps of the tower.

Jade was waiting for me.

'Kyle' She said when she saw me running towards her.

'What happened?' I asked.

'The kid didn't make it, Lena couldn't save her' Jade said.

'The mother?' I asked, totally shocked.

'She jumped to her death when she heard the news' Jade said.

We both bursted into tears, and went inside the tower.


End file.
